soasmae waves

This book complements existing texts on seismic-wave propa­gation through its choice of major topics. Attenuation and loss mechanisms are discussed more fully than has been done else­where, and the chapter devoted to waves along cylindrical bore­holes brings together for the first time a wealth of published information on this topic. The review of seismic modeling techniques does not duplicate other sources, nor does the discus­sion of small-scale field experiments. However, the book does include topics which have been treated many times, and one may be inclined to ask the question, “Why?” One answer is that these discussions clarify terminology and serve as an introduction to the subject of attenuating media and to the more complex topic of wave propagation in cylindrical geometry. Moreover, these opening discussions of plane waves have teaching value, relative to other treatments of the same topic. In the discussion of waves at a plane boundary, the expressions for reflections, refractions, surface waves, and attenuated waves are shown to represent different aspects of the same entity, a point which is often obscured. Additionally, computation of transient wave­ forms for reflected and refracted plane waves is reduced to a convolution procedure, with a simple physical interpretation of each term.